The Maker’s created Ultimate Universe, also known as Earth-6160, is heading into its second year. In the set up for its big second year we got the release of the one-shot comic book Ultimate Universe: One Year In. With this one-shot we saw the debut of Ultimate Nick Fury. As with every character and organization, Ultimate Nick Fury was a character reshaped in the vision of The Maker. As we learned about who Ultimate Nick Fury there were a lot of revelations that made the reshape the events of the first year of the Ultimate Universe and what can happen in its second year.
HISTORY OF ULTIMATE NICK FURY
Ultimate Universe: One Year In expanded of the history of Earth-6160 through the eyes of Ultimate Nick Fury. There we learned that Ultimate Nick Fury’s history was familiar to his Earth-616 through the end of World War II. While not stated, around the time Fury would have been given the Infinity Formula he met The Maker and became his secret agent all the way through being put in charge of H.A.N.D., also known as Heroic Anomaly Neutralization Directorate.
Ultimate Nick Fury as an Agent of H.A.N.D. operated in a similar fashion to his Earth-616 counterpart except with a twist. Living up to the name of the organization. Fury would go about killing various characters before they could become superheroes. Showing The Maker’s greater vision was not limited to eliminating Earth-based heroes. The Maker had Fury kill characters such as Black Bolt, Lockjaw, Devil Dinosaur, Manthis, Dum-Dum Dugan, Anarkus the original Vision and the Power Pack team.
While we learned about this villainous twist to Ultimate Nick Fury, we also found out he wasn’t completely brainwashed. There was a part of Ultimate Nick Fury that knew what he was doing wasn’t right. From his inner monologue, Fury stated while he was loyal to The Maker but not to the rest of the Council. It appeared that The Maker’s disappearance caused Fury to reexamine everything he did and concluded they should be eliminated.
It was through Fury growing this consciousness we learned the truth about this version of Ultimate Nick Fury. As soon as he went through with his plan to eliminate The Maker’s Council his planned failed. As The Maker’s Council took great pleasure in revealing, this wasn’t the first time Fury tried to betray him. In fact, the Ultimate Nick Fury we were learning about was a clone of the original. After killing him The Maker’s Council decided to activate another clone from their storage room filled with Nick Fury clones.
POWER OF SECRET IDENTITIES
Through the tragic backstory of Ultimate Nick Fury there was a key element to the Ultimate Universe that was delved into more. That element was the importance of secret identities for the heroes that Tony Stark and Reed Richards recruited into the Ultimates and others who got their powers. This is due to the fact that The Maker’s Council don’t know the real identities of the Ultimates other than Tony Stark. This revelation gave more reasoning behind the formation of H.A.N.D. standing for Heroic Anomaly Neutralization Directorate.
It is a revelation that does put into question how much information The Maker shared with his Council. Because as we saw throughout Ultimate Invasion, The Maker did keep records of what he did to alter the history of countless classic Marvel characters on Earth-6160. The fact that The Maker created H.A.N.D. to eliminate any potential heroes shows there was a deep level of distrust between him and his Council. Given that the Council he created are made up of a mix of characters who on Earth-6161 were heroes or villains The Maker knew they could betray them at any moment.
This also does make what Tony Stark and Reed Richards pulled off to give Peter Parker and others’ powers in Ultimate Universe #1 impressive. Because they not only gave various characters powers but did so in a way that did it so The Maker’s Council couldn’t easily track who got them. This credibility is certainly needed after The Immortal Weapons of Hulk utterly defeated the Ultimates they at least have some tech advantage. This is thanks to Reed Richards, the Ultimate Doctor Doom, using what he learned as The Maker’s prisoner to create tech The Council don’t know about.
The importance of maintaining a secret identity as a superhero is something Uncle Ben told Peter Parker about in Ultimate Spider-Man #11. In that issue Uncle Ben told Peter how it only took a few weeks of observing his nephew to find out he is Spider-Man. This was to exemplify how easy it is for a secret identity to no longer be a secret. Given that The Maker’s Council are actively trying to find out the identities of the heroes rising up against him Uncle Ben’s words are given eve greater importance.
With how Marvel, through their comics and movies, have made secret identities appear to be an old school concept it is good to see they are given importance in the Ultimate Universe. With The Maker’s Council having so much of an advantage on them the Ultimate Universe’s heroes can use any advantage they can get.
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